Passing the buck

The Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 were supposed to celebrate sport while showcasing the capital city of a rising nation. But the mega-event’s legacy isn’t shining. As investigations into the organising of the Games continue, the corruption taint is spreading. In a performance audit report, the Comptroller and Auditor General indicts the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government for serious lapses and irregularities in the procurement of Games-related items. The original budget for the Games in 2003 was pegged at Rs 400 crore; the actual budget touched a whopping Rs 30,000 crore. Dikshit had earlier blamed a multiplicity of authorities as the main reason for cost overruns and project delays. That begs the question why the system was set up that way.

The tone was set at the top with the Organising Committee itself. The Games’ original bid document had provided for Suresh Kalmadi, as Indian Olympic Association head, to be OC vice-chairman with a government appointee as chairman. Yet, his stint as OC chief wasn’t contested despite alarms sounded by senior Congress leaders, including former sports ministers Sunil Dutt and Mani Shankar Aiyar. It’s a bit rich for the UPA at the Centre to now try and distance itself from such decisions. From 2004 till 2010 it did little to check his free run despite allegations of irregularities. Sports minister Ajay Maken has sought to pass the buck to the NDA for Kalmadi’s reign. This won’t change the fact that the UPA played passive spectator as the OC bungled and courted scandal in the Games run-up in the absence of oversight. If UPA sincerely wants to tackle Games-related corruption, it must start by admitting its failure to prevent it.